Craig Newmark began the service in 1995 as an email distribution list to friends, featuring local events in the San Francisco Bay Area. It became a web-based service in 1996 and expanded into other classified categories. It started expanding to other U.S. cities in 2000, and now covers 70 countries.

In March 2008, Spanish , French , Italian , German , and Portuguese became the first non-English languages Craigslist supported. [4] As of August 9, 2012, over 700 cities and areas in 70 countries have Craigslist sites. [5] Some Craigslist sites cover large regions instead of individual metropolitan areas—for example, the U.S. states of Delaware and Wyoming , the Colorado Western Slope , the California Gold Country , and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan are among the locations with their own Craigslist sites. [6]